Understanding water hardness

[fr499y]

There is but its better to stock for your water than adjust for the fish, especially for a newer fish keeper

Rehoming fish is the easiest way either by advertising local or taking them to a local shop (always check with them first!) some give store credit but not a lot do these days.

[John Linklater]

Just a bit of friendly advice from another inexperienced Fishkeeper

You don’t need to understand it. I don’t understand the science behind it either but it’s important because your fish won’t thrive if they are living in ph, kh or gh that doesn’t suit them.

The internet, especially some of the American sites is full of conflicting advice so narrow it down to a few trusted sites and the confusion will disappear. I use this site and Seriously Fish and seldom refer to anything else.

Test your aquarium water and keep fish that suit your water hardness and ph, use a liquid test kit by API, NT Labs or some other reputable brand (you need to buy the water hardness kit separately with API).

If you keep fish in the wrong temperature or wrong water hardness they will die younger, sometimes much younger and are more susceptible to diseases which can affect your whole tank.

[Fish]

There is but its better to stock for your water than adjust for the fish, especially for a newer fish keeper

Rehoming fish is the easiest way either by advertising local or taking them to a local shop (always check with them first!) some give store credit but not a lot do these days.

I guess a local store is more likely to take them if you purchase your fish from them I’m taking a drive up there Monday to look for a background so I’ll see what’s what. In all honesty I was originally going to purchase online. After reading a few posts where people had been given bad advice I didn’t want the same to happen to me and for them to sell me something different than I had planned or knew I could have.

In fact if I’m being completely honest when we took a trip up there a few weeks ago I was mesmerised by some of the amazing looking plants and would have been happy with just plants. But then I did some research and realised they were marine plants and I can’t have them anyway

[Fish]

Just a bit of friendly advice from another inexperienced Fishkeeper

You don’t need to understand it. I don’t understand the science behind it either but it’s important because your fish won’t thrive if they are living in ph, kh or gh that doesn’t suit them.

The internet, especially some of the American sites is full of conflicting advice so narrow it down to a few trusted sites and the confusion will disappear. I use this site and Seriously Fish and seldom refer to anything else.

Test your aquarium water and keep fish that suit your water hardness and ph, use a liquid test kit by API, NT Labs or some other reputable brand (you need to buy the water hardness kit separately with API).

If you keep fish in the wrong temperature or wrong water hardness they will die younger, sometimes much younger and are more susceptible to diseases which can affect your whole tank.

Thanks John. I definitely look too deep into things but wanted to do everything properly. I’ve only had axolotl before that I ended up re homing through a rescue as feeding them worms grossed me out (I save worms from puddles!) so much and I felt so bad for the worms, stupid I know. And a goldfish from the fair as a child that lived ten years. I didn’t test the water for either as I didn’t know anything about it at the time so really want to get this right.

I’ve got an api kit, and using dr Tim’s ammonia, and was so excited this morning to see the nitrites shoot up and the ammonia dip, because it means I’m at least doing something right, right now haha! But while I’m waiting for the cycle I started looking at everything else and it feels like information overload, then when I finally get my head around one thing I see there’s something else that has to be spot on.

Thanks for the heads up on where to get info - I originally started on Reddit and all of it was conflicting advice, and that’s what originally brought me here.

[John Linklater]

Just a bit of friendly advice from another inexperienced Fishkeeper

You don’t need to understand it. I don’t understand the science behind it either but it’s important because your fish won’t thrive if they are living in ph, kh or gh that doesn’t suit them.

The internet, especially some of the American sites is full of conflicting advice so narrow it down to a few trusted sites and the confusion will disappear. I use this site and Seriously Fish and seldom refer to anything else.

Test your aquarium water and keep fish that suit your water hardness and ph, use a liquid test kit by API, NT Labs or some other reputable brand (you need to buy the water hardness kit separately with API).

If you keep fish in the wrong temperature or wrong water hardness they will die younger, sometimes much younger and are more susceptible to diseases which can affect your whole tank.

Thanks John. I definitely look too deep into things but wanted to do everything properly. I’ve only had axolotl before that I ended up re homing through a rescue as feeding them worms grossed me out (I save worms from puddles!) so much and I felt so bad for the worms, stupid I know. And a goldfish from the fair as a child that lived ten years. I didn’t test the water for either as I didn’t know anything about it at the time so really want to get this right.

I’ve got an api kit, and using dr Tim’s ammonia, and was so excited this morning to see the nitrites shoot up and the ammonia dip, because it means I’m at least doing something right, right now haha! But while I’m waiting for the cycle I started looking at everything else and it feels like information overload, then when I finally get my head around one thing I see there’s something else that has to be spot on.

Thanks for the heads up on where to get info - I originally started on Reddit and all of it was conflicting advice, and that’s what originally brought me here.

It’s really confusing, I see so much of what I went through with some of your posts. I had kept fish 25 years ago but back into the hobby around September 23 and thought I’d read as much as I could before getting started. The more I read the more confused I got, real plants, fake plants, fish in cycle v fishless cycle, ammonia, nitrates, nitrite, kh, ph, gh, big water changes v small water changes. Lighting, heaters, oxygen, chlorine blah blah. You just get lost in it all.

Keep it simple, don’t Google anything and when you go to the aquarium store have a written list of fish that you know are suitable and don’t listen to the sales guy.

[John Linklater]

Just a bit of friendly advice from another inexperienced Fishkeeper

You don’t need to understand it. I don’t understand the science behind it either but it’s important because your fish won’t thrive if they are living in ph, kh or gh that doesn’t suit them.

The internet, especially some of the American sites is full of conflicting advice so narrow it down to a few trusted sites and the confusion will disappear. I use this site and Seriously Fish and seldom refer to anything else.

Test your aquarium water and keep fish that suit your water hardness and ph, use a liquid test kit by API, NT Labs or some other reputable brand (you need to buy the water hardness kit separately with API).

If you keep fish in the wrong temperature or wrong water hardness they will die younger, sometimes much younger and are more susceptible to diseases which can affect your whole tank.

Thanks John. I definitely look too deep into things but wanted to do everything properly. I’ve only had axolotl before that I ended up re homing through a rescue as feeding them worms grossed me out (I save worms from puddles!) so much and I felt so bad for the worms, stupid I know. And a goldfish from the fair as a child that lived ten years. I didn’t test the water for either as I didn’t know anything about it at the time so really want to get this right.

I’ve got an api kit, and using dr Tim’s ammonia, and was so excited this morning to see the nitrites shoot up and the ammonia dip, because it means I’m at least doing something right, right now haha! But while I’m waiting for the cycle I started looking at everything else and it feels like information overload, then when I finally get my head around one thing I see there’s something else that has to be spot on.

Thanks for the heads up on where to get info - I originally started on Reddit and all of it was conflicting advice, and that’s what originally brought me here.

It’s really confusing, I see so much of what I went through with some of your posts. I had kept fish 25 years ago but back into the hobby around September 23 and thought I’d read as much as I could before getting started. The more I read the more confused I got, real plants, fake plants, fish in cycle v fishless cycle, ammonia, nitrates, nitrite, kh, ph, gh, big water changes v small water changes. Lighting, heaters, oxygen, chlorine blah blah. You just get lost in it all.

Keep it simple, don’t Google anything and when you go to the aquarium store have a written list of fish that you know are suitable and don’t listen to the sales guy.

[Fish]

So my ph readings are as follows. This one is out of the tank:



And this is straight out of the tap:




Do I need to do anything about the tank ph at all when it’s finished cycling? I added tetra complete substrate under the sand to help the plants grow so not sure if that’s what is changing the ph reading from the tap water?

Not that I can easily read which colour it matches up with, but I can see the tank results are higher than the tap.

[DuzMano]

This is ph, which is alkalinity/acidity and not hardness dgh. But it's interesting to see the difference of about .2 pH from tap to tank. if you have the API kit you need a separate test, as I think was mentioned. Some of the other master kits include a hardness test too, so you might need to source a separate test specifically for hardness. I am sure an experienced pro will be along soon enough to recommend something specific.

[DuzMano]

Rocks, substrate, wood etc can all have an impact by leaching. It's not huge tho but measurable from the kits.

[Fish]

This is ph, which is alkalinity/acidity and not hardness dgh. But it's interesting to see the difference of about .2 pH from tap to tank. if you have the API kit you need a separate test, as I think was mentioned. Some of the other master kits include a hardness test too, so you might need to source a separate test specifically for hardness. I am sure an experienced pro will be along soon enough to recommend something specific.

Yeah I know, this was further down the thread where I mentioned I hadn’t tested for the ph yet I just grabbed the hardness info from affinity water with my postcode and popped a screen shot on op.

I’m sure I’ve spotted people with kh results too, what’s that for? Do I need to buy separate tests for water hardness or can I go off of affinity water?